India had mixed fortunes at the Denmark Open on Wednesday, as Saina Nehwal knocked out Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain and P V Sindhu suffered a straight-games defeat to China's Chen Yufei in the first round, in Odense.
Glasgow World Championship bronze medallist Saina got the better of two-time World champion Marin 22-20, 21-18 and in the process avenged her second round defeat to the Spanish ace at the Japan Open.
She will meet either Thailand's Nitchaon Jindapol or Russia's Evgeniya Kosetskaya in the next round.
Sindhu failed to get going against world No 10 Yufei and was beaten 17-21, 21-23 in 43 minutes.
This is her second successive early exit. After winning the Korea Open she lost in the second round of Japan Open last month.
Earlier, India’s leading men’s shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and H S Prannoy made positive starts but B Sai Praneeth lost in the opening round.
World No 8 Srikanth overcame a spirited effort from compatriot qualifier Subhankar Dey, winning 21-17, 21-15 to set up a clash with Korean Jeon Hyeok Jin, the 2016 Australian Open runner-up.
On the adjacent court, Praneeth failed to erase 11-7 and 11-8 deficits and went down 10-21, 15-21 to local hope Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus.
World No 15 Prannoy, meanwhile, recovered from a 6-11 deficit in the second game to oust Denmark's Emil Holst 21-18, 21-19.
It was his third win over the Danish shuttler. The Indian is likely to play former world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia on Thursday.
Among other Indians in the fray, young doubles specialist Satwiksairaj Rankireddy suffered twin defeats in mixed and men's doubles.
Satwik and his mixed doubles partner Ashwini Ponnappa, who had reached the semi-finals last week at the Dutch Open, lost 19-21, 17-21 to the local combo of Niclas Nohr and Sara Thygesen.
In men's doubles, Satwik and Chirag Shetty, who reached the quarters at the Korea Open, failed to get across theKorean pair of Chung Eui Seok and Kim Dukyoung, losing 21-14, 18-21, 17-21 in the opening round.
The experienced men's doubles combo of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy also lost, 13-21, 18-21, to Denmark's Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding, while it was also curtains for Ashwini and Sikki in the women's doubles after they went down fighting 21-15, 18-21, 21-23 to the Malaysian combo of Chow Mei Kuan and Lee Meng Yean.
Another mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy, who had reached the semi-finals at the Japan Open, also crashed out in the opening round after losing 17-21, 15-21 to the Irish pair of Sam Magee and Chloe Magee.
Saina's fifth win over Marin in nine meetings
The highlight of the day, however, was the match between Saina and Marin, where the world No 12 Indian dished out a controlled game, mixed with aggression and caution to outwit the world No 4 Spaniard.
The match started on an aggressive note as both the players were locked in an initial battle before Saina took a 11-9 lead at the break with the help of her better net play and disguised strokes. She moved to 13-11 with accurate down the line smashes, but the left-handed Marin kept breathing down her neck and leveled with two points. Every time Saina grabbed a point, Marin came back with her trademark strokes and also took a crucial 19-18 lead with a net return.
Once again Saina's down the line smash came to her rescue as she drew parity and soon grabbed game point. Marin again came up with another precise net return to level at 20-20. However, she hit wide next to hand an opportunity to the Indian, who sealed it with another superb smash.
After the change of sides, Marin started dictating terms initially, moving to a 5-3 lead but a pumped up Saina soon came back to forge ahead at 7-6 when her opponent hit wide and then led 11-8 at the break.
After the interval, Marin narrowed the margin to 10-11 but Saina did not allow the Spaniard to make a comeback as she jumped to a 16-11 lead. Marin made a last ditch effort to claw back at 18-20 but Saina soon shut the door without much ado.
"I was moving well and finally it is about movements and picking up shots. She is the best player in the world and she is playing extremely well but I was happy with the way I was retrieving my shots," said Saina, after notching up her fifth victory over Marin in nine meetings.
"I really don't know what I played today, everything happened so fast. The court is little fast, it was not a rally kind of court. The smashes were going well but anything could have happened but I picked up those difficult shots," she added.
Meanwhile, Sindhu conceded a 3-0 lead early on but erased the deficit when she drew parity at 9-9. The scores ran neck and neck till 17-17. Chen then stepped up the pace and grabbed four crucial points to earn the bragging rights.
In the second game, Chen surged to a 7-3 lead and Sindhu once again clawed back with four straight points, but at the break it was the Chinese who had a slender one-point lead.
After the interval, Chen extended the lead to 15-11. Sindhu reduced it to 16-17, but struggled to retrieve some low shots and with one of her net
dribbles going to net Chen had four match-points.
Sindhu saved all to make it 20-20 but eventually Chen closed out the match at 23-21 to avenge her World Championship defeat.
